Origin gets video broadcasting in next update

Every month, people watch millions of hours of game videos on services like YouTube and Twitch.tv. Now, publisher Electronic Arts is teaming up with Twitch to make it easy for gamers to stream to viewers around the world.

EA is adding the ability for people to start broadcasting their gameplay directly to Twitch inside the EA Origin software. Origin is EA’s Steam-like digital-distribution and networking service. Twitch.tv is the gaming spinoff of video-streaming website Justin.tv. This feature is coming to Origin in the next few days, according to EA.

The streaming start-up process is very simple. Players just need to tap Shift-F1 on their keyboards to bring up the Origin interface. A camera icon will appear on the bottom of the screen, and clicking that will start the Twitch broadcast as long as the user has already tied that account to his Origin username.

From within Origin, players have a high degree of control over the stream. Users can independently adjust the game volume and microphone volume for narration. A broadcast menu allows the user to fiddle with the video resolution and the number of frames per second fed into Twitch.

Another new feature allows players to add non-Origin games to their Origin library. That means users can now launch something they bought from Steam in Origin. And yes, you can then broadcast those games, too.